Hilal as-Sabi '

Abu l-Husain Hilal ibn Muhassin ibn Ibrahim as-Sabi ' mostly just Hilal as-Sabi' ( Arabic أبو الحسين هلال بن محسن بن إبراهيم الصابئ, DMG Abū l-Ḥusayn Hilāl b. Muḥassin b. Ibrāhīm aṣ-Ṣābiʾ ; * 969 in Harran ; † 1056 in Baghdad ) was an Iraqi writer, historian, and bureaucrat from the late Buyid period. He came from a Sabian family from Harran, but converted to Islam in 1012. He worked first under the Emir Ṣamṣām ad-Dawla and then under Fachr al-Mulk the vizier of Baha 'ad-Dawla. He died in Baghdad in 1056, where he lived practically his entire life.

Work

Hilal al-Sabiʾ wrote several books, but many of them no longer exist.

• Rules and regulations of the Abbasid Court (رسوم دار الجلافة Rusūm dār al-chilāfa )

Is his most famous book, A Guide to Bureaucracy and State Affairs. Despite its practical administrative focus, the book contains several statistics, anecdotes, and historical explanations that are very useful as a source for the historian .

• The Book of Viziers ( Arabic كتاب الوزراء Kitāb al-wuzarā ' )

Only the beginning of this work has survived; this part deals with the caliph al-Muqtadir .

• The story of Hilal as-Sabiʾ ( Arabic تاريخ ابي الحسين هلال بن المحسن بن ابراهيم الصابي Tārīch Abī l-Husain Hilal ibn al-Muhassin ibn Ibrāhīm as-Sābī )

This work is also no longer entirely available, the surviving parts of it deal with the late Buyid period.

literature

• D. Sourdel: Hilāl . In: P. Bearman, Th. Bianquis, CE Bosworth , E. van Donzel and WP Heinrichs (eds.): The Encyclopaedia of Islam. New Edition . Brill, 2008.
• Hilāl al-Sābi '. Rusūm Dār al-Khilāfa: The Rules and Regulations of the Abbasid Court. Trans. Elie A. Salem. American University of Beirut, 1977.